Wednesday, June 14, 2017

A report
on the deteriorating conditions within socialist Venezuela ends on the
following optimistic note:

While some still solely blame
the current crisis on the collapse in oil prices in 2012, a vast
majority of Venezuelans believe the country needs serious economic
reform. After 17 years of hardcore
socialism, egged
on by left-wing elites around the world, many in leadership appear
hesitant to accuse the socialist system itself -- and not the people
running it -- of being the problem.

Many within the
opposition's leadership structure are members of the Socialist
International (SI). Popular Will, the party led by Leopoldo
López before his arrest, belongs to the SI. López's
colleagues often find it easier to lay the blame at Maduro's feet and
call for elections, rather than demand a free, capitalist society,
rebuilt from the ground up.

Yet the students and street
protesters, who have put their lives on pause to fight Maduro, seem to
understand that the institutional rot goes way beyond
Maduro.

As one student put it to me: "Chávez
succeeded in creating an equal society by making everyone poor." [bold
added]

The student at the end is correct, but how deeply
does this understanding run, even in his case? One of the pictures from the article
shows a demand for the release from prison of Leopoldo
López. Certainly, there should be no such thing as political
prisoners, but why him in particular? Are Venezuela's many serious and
mounting problems caused by mere corruption or "institutional rot" -- or by
socialism itself? The fact that people are risking life and limb by
backing a socialist under such oppressive conditions tells me that the
lesson being learned isn't that socialism is immoral and impractical,
but that the current regime isn't implementing it
properly.

Even if many Venezuelans are blaming socialism
for their problems, they will likely experience things getting worse
before they will have a chance to try to make them better. The current regime
has no interest in reform, and it will be replaced only after it
collapses or is overthrown. Chaos will precede any attempt to change
to a freer social system or, what I fear for them is more likely, a second chance for
socialism.